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ATVS Roundtable: BOLD Predictions

Make sure you wear gloves as not to get burned by these fiery takes!

By Billy Gomila, Paul Crewe, Adam Henderson, Seth Galina, Saltzman, Zach Junda, Poseur, PodKATT, Evan Saacks, and Jake Nazar
TOPSHOT-GREECE-FIRE Photo credit should read ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP/Getty Images

We have officially reached Week Zero of the college football season. Let’s hear your BOLDEST predictions and Tabasco-level spicy takes — for LSU or any other college football team:

Dan

  • Texas A&M misses bowl eligibility due to the combination of roster turnover and brutal scheduling.
  • LSU loses the SEC W but still makes the playoffs.
  • Jalen Hurts is replaced as OU’s starting QB midseason.
  • Joe Burrow becomes the first single season 4,000-yard passer in LSU history.

Adam

  • Stephen Sullivan leads LSU in receptions and touchdowns but not yards.
  • Emery doesn’t see significant snaps until Northwestern State.
  • The Florida game will come down to a field goal and will decide the difference between 11-1 and 10-2.
  • Jake Eason will be largely average at Washington.
  • LSU will make the playoff largely because of the following:
  • Michigan beats Penn State, Penn State beats Ohio State, Ohio State beats Michigan. The B1G East will come down to records against Michigan State and Maryland.
  • And the PAC-12 Champion will have two, potentially three losses if Oregon makes it.

Seth

  • Both teams score over 30 points in Austin.
  • LSU beats Alabama
  • Myles Brennan plays significant minutes for whatever reason and plays well.
  • One of Clemson and Alabama is not in the National Championship.
  • Jefferson and Chase both over 1,000 receiving yards

Saltzman

  • LSU will have at least three players on defense named All-Americans and or finalists for a national award.
  • A running back will rank in the top-five on the team in receiving yards.
  • Tigers use just one place-kicker.

Zach

  • LSU loses to Alabama but makes the playoff because there’s now precedent for a non-conference champion of making the field, and two teams from the same conference making it in.
  • Michigan loses to Ohio State but still wins the Big 10 in a very Ireland wins the Quidditch World Cup but Viktor Krum catches the snitch fashion.
  • The PAC 12 and Big 12 are left on the outside looking in.

Poseur

National:

  • Michigan loses to Ohio State. Oh, sorry, you said bold predictions. My bad.
  • Iowa will be the best team in the Big Ten West, but somehow lose the division to... Purdue.
  • Virginia Tech wins the ACC Coastal.
  • Iowa St. earns their highest final AP ranking in school history (#19)
  • Stuff happens in the Pac-12. No one cares.

SEC:

  • Feleipe Franks loses his starting job. Florida struggles to win 7 games.
  • Mizzou is gonna be 7-0 going into November (really, South Carolina is their only big test). Georgia is gonna destroy them, but Mizzou will put themselves in position to make a NY6 Bowl until they crap the bed against either Florida, Tennessee, or both.
  • Tennessee doesn’t suck.
  • State has the same exact record as last season: 8-5 overall, 4-4 in conference.

LSU:

  • Joe Burrow breaks the LSU single-season passing yardage record.
  • No LSU running back has 1000 yards rushing. Clyde Edwards-Helaire does have over 1000 yards from scrimmage.
  • Grant Delpit wins the Bednarik Award for best defensive player. He is not even a Thorpe finalist because Kristian Fulton is.
  • LSU goes undefeated in the regular season.

You said bold.

Pod Katt

  • Arizona State wins the Pac-12.
  • South Carolina is #2 in the SEC East.
  • LSU will beat Alabama and win the West....only to lose to Georgia in Atlanta.
  • Notre Dame (or a double SEC entry) will once again cause two P5 conferences to be left out of the playoff, the Pac 12 and the Big Ten. They will embarrass themselves attempting to gin up interest in their Loser’s Rose Bowl.
  • Army will beat Michigan.
  • Mississippi State will finish last in the West.
  • Auburn will win the Iron bowl, a week after announcing Malzahn’s resignation.

Billy

  • Justin Fields will completely out-perform Jake Fromm at quarterback. Maybe even be a Heisman finalist.
  • Auburn will get off to a hot start early with wins over Oregon and Texas A&M before October brings them back to Earth. Texas A&M, meanwhile, will start even slower than they think they will, but will pick up a big pelt in November with an upset win over Georgia in Athens.
  • Georgia will still win the SEC East, but they’ll miss the playoffs, and we’ll start hearing some whispers about whether they’re starting to waste their window of opportunity.
  • Mississippi State is the conference’s wild card this year. Tommy Stevens gives them the passing game they lacked last year, and they become a real dangerous out. LSU had better be ready for that trip to Vegas.
  • Tua will get his revenge Heisman, complete with Jalen Hurts as a fellow finalist.
  • Texas takes a relative step back from last year and catch an upset somewhere else in the Big 12, plus Oklahoma. But they’re going to be sitting pretty going into 2020.
  • Ohio State avoids the random let-down we got used to under Urban Meyer in recent years, but finally drops the Michigan game and fails to win the Big 10.
  • Grant Delpit wins the Bednarick Award he should’ve won last year. Derek Stingley is LSU’s most exciting freshman since Leonard Fournette. Rashard Lawrence makes good on his potential and is an All-American.

Evan

  • LSU, Clemson and Oregon will all go 11-1. Clemson will be No. 3 in the Playoff despite a loss to 7-5 NC State. LSU will be No. 4 despite a 31-19 loss in Tuscaloosa because Oregon’s loss was to 5-7 USC.
  • Justin Herbert makes hot take artists swoon by electing to not forgo the Rose Bowl in anticipation of the NFL Draft. He throws four interceptions in a 45-23 loss to Ohio State.
  • Alabama will lose to Auburn but no one will care because they will still beat Georgia in Atlanta on a fake punt touchdown with 35 seconds left.
  • Oklahoma will go undefeated behind Jalen Hurts. The Heisman ceremony will feature Hurts, Lawrence and Tua. ESPN will run an ad for the ceremony every 15 seconds and will send Gameday to New York instead of Army-Navy to milk the drama. Tua will win.
  • LSU will outlast OU 37-35 on a last-second Cade York field goal after he struggled to hit them early in the season.
  • Alabama will annihilate Clemson, setting up a rematch with LSU in the Superdome for the National Championship. No LSU fan is excited about this scenario.

Jake

SEC:

  • Georgia will lose a bad game to either South Carolina or Missouri which will either cost them the SEC East or mean that they won’t be able to get into the playoff as a 12-1 division winner.
  • Florida is an improved team from a year ago overall but finishes with a worse record with one bad loss due to Feleipe Franks inability to improve.
  • Even against maybe the toughest schedule in the country, South Carolina reaches seven wins and the national narrative about Will Muschamp is completely shifted.

National:

  • Oregon wins the PAC-12 as a two, or maybe even more likely three-loss team, thus boxing the PAC-12 out of the playoff for another season.
  • Ohio State remains very good under Ryan Day but similar to the end of Urban Meyer’s tenure, suffers one or two really bad losses which means that despite their Big Ten title win, they are left out of the playoff as well.

LSU:

  • John Emery rushes for more than 1,000 yards. Clyde Edwards-Helaire has more than 500 receiving yards.
  • LSU makes it into the playoff as an 11-1 SEC West runner-up, where they play #1 Clemson in the National Semifinal, not Alabama.